2025 #28 The Book Censor's Library (Al-Essa)

 

The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While not totally subtle in its satire, Al-Essa's novel succeeds with a dark whimsy befitting Alice and Wonderland, which serves as larger reference for the story in more ways than one. But Al-Essa's looking glass is perhaps more than it seems, and we are easily manipulated into caring for characters even though they bear titles, like stock figures, rather than names. The "Everyman" approach keeps a strange distance, until we come to understand the power of our own imaginations with an ending that has been described as a "narrative rupture" or a "twist worthy of Kafka." The ending made me a bit cranky, initially, but the more I thought about it, it seemed perfect to serve Al-Essa's true narrative, with its hanging threads and all.

View all my reviews